Awesome BPA. That was my 2nd choice for this trip this summer, but since the volcano is still closed for safety reasons, decided that I'd try my luck again next year and hope that it's open (or just go anyway at that point and enjoy the other things to do there like the gorillas).

You should share more, larger than stamp-sized, photos from the trip

Sure! I was there for 20-something days and didn't go to the south of the country (omo valley) and did everything on a skinny budget (its the cheapest country I've ever been!). I can give you tips on how to get around and save money, avoid the scams and my favourite cities/activities, but it would be better if first you tell me a little bit more about your trip: how long you plan on spending there, where you wanna go etc.

I'll throw my Africa TR into the mix too:

http://capetomilan.com/

incl: ZAR, Moz, Malawi, Zim, Ethiopia, Egypt (long layover)

Unfortunately haven't been able to go back since 2010. But I've gotten to go to lots of other places

you alive chisness? just read that congo has declared ebola outbreak and things havent been to good in CAR. hope your trip was great and u are well. we need an update!

Bump. Chisness, where are you?

Thanks for bumping

I had the best trip of my life, particularly in the Central African Republic. I was the only tourist at the lodge I was staying at and pretty sure that made me the only tourist in the entire country!

I *am* going to get a full trip report up by the end of the year, but for now here is a mini one including some pics I've posted to FB so far:

-Trip map:


-Flew into Kinshasa
-Ferry to Brazzaville
-A long overnight bus ride to Ouesso in the north (long turned into doubly long when it broke down for ~12 hours overnight!)
-Canoe into the Nouable-Ndoki National Park in Congo, stay for a few days
-Another canoe onwards to Sangha Lodge in the Dzanga-Sangha National Park in Central African Republic, stay for about a week
-Back to Kinshasa the same way

-I shot primarily with a D3s and 200-400 at the bais (forest clearings) and 70-200 for the gorillas. I also had a 24-70 for other stuff and a 14-24 that was rarely used.

-In the Congo park, I did 2 gorilla treks of the western lowland gorillas and spent 2 days watching mostly elephants in the bai (a large forest clearing, we watch from a large wooden platform). The camps here were pretty rough -- breakfast literally just bread, lunch bread with really strange looking tuna, and dinner a massive pot of rice or pasta with chicken, if lucky (OK, so the dinner is kind of like a dream meal for me). The accoms were also a little rough -- bucket showers, drop toilets, and mattresses 2" thick. These are research camps so I don't really mind most things like that, but the management was also not so on top of things.



-The gorillas were habituated and unfortunately photography was VERY tough. I was at ISO 3200+ most of the time and it was rare to not have major obstructions. Also it was rare to see multiple gorillas together, so most shots were portraity. The nice thing is that they were supposed to be 1 hour each, but the guide allowed for ~1.5 hours both times. This is one of my favorites of one of the silverbacks:



-The bai was not so fruitful. Both days we only saw ~2-5 elephants. There were some interesting interactions as one approached a water source that another was using, but nothing too exciting. We did see a wild gorilla once, but it was very far away. And yes, the local water is called Cristal.



-Then I took the canoe to the Sangha Lodge in CAR. This was AMAZING. CAR has had a big war over the past year or so and Rod and his wife who own the lodge had to flee and considered dropping it completely, but only a few weeks before I arrived, decided to stick it out and return. It was really great hearing about their experiences and they treated me super well, including listening to my...unusual food requests.

-I had 6 nights there and wasn't quite sure what to do. I ended up going to the nearby bai twice, explored a very untouched waterfall area in the forest where picathartes are known to have nests, did nothing one day, and spent one day/night with a local tribe called Ba'Aka.

-The picathartes attempt did not work out because they hadn't returned to the nests in a while. Rod's background is in birding so he is a real expert and found this spot randomly by himself, which is now one of only 2-3 in the world to reliably find this bird. Still, the scenery in the area was quite special and super untouched.

-The Ba'Aka trip was very unique. This American guy Louis Sarno visited them in CAR ~30 years ago to record their music and enjoyed being there so much that he has lived there ever since and has adopted a child and, I believe, is married to a woman. There's a movie about him called Song from the Forest, and maybe an earlier one too, about him taking his kid to America to meet the kid's grandmother. It contrasts his time there with time in the forest (I haven't seen it yet).

-I was the only tourist there. I had a guide/translator and then there were about 40 Ba'Aka people. Louis couldn't come because his wife was bitten by a snake the day before! We saw them hunting in the forest (have a cool video I need to upload), instantly butchering/cooking the food, and then at night they did some really awesome musical performances in the pitch black, a few of which I recorded.





-Saving the best for last...the Dzanga Bai was unbelievably great. At all times there were 20-50 elephants visible and constantly interacting like I had never seen in standard safari spots like Tanzania or South Africa.



-I love elephants, so seeing them jumping on each other's backs, mothers running with kids, young ones playing together, big bulls getting into serious fights, was superb...it was really nonstop action. This elephant "waking up" these parrots early one morning was one of my favorite scenes:



-I got to shoot from the ground about 1/4 of the time, but most was from an elevated platform, meaning the elephants were often very far away or if closer had only mud in the background and the angle can look a bit strange. I tried to make the best of this by going b&w like in this shot:



-Overall this lodge and the CAR area was the best travel experience I've ever had! Once I finish the full TR I will post here.

Outstanding , looking forward to the final write up. Did you get ravaged by insects at various points in the trip?

That silverback photo is awesome. Looking forward to the full TR!

The worst were these things called sweat bees.

"It congregates about the moist tissue of the eyes, nose and mouth to find water in the dry environment where it lives, and is therefore sometimes called a "sweat bee". It has the ability to produce a dark and strong honey."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plebeina_hildebrandti

If moving, these things were not an issue, but while at the bais watching elephants, you are basically standing still. There seemed to be basically infinite of them and as written there, they go straight for your eyes/nose/mouth. They are quite easy to kill, but killing 500 just means 500 more will be there soon. The lodge owner's wife even was wearing a beekeeper's hat/face net to avoid them.

They don't sting, but they are probably the most annoying bug I've encountered and made photography a little annoying. The Congo bai had an enclosed netted area that you could run into for a quick reprieve.

Thanks! I was happy to get that one because he was looking away almost the entire time and only gave a quick glance.

Forgot to mention that I more or less have a sweating disorder, which is not a good thing around sweat bees in the least

Sounds like an epic trip! Looking forward to the full report! Thanks for sharing the silverback pic and video.

Thanks! I will add that I think if I spoke French it would've been an even more interesting trip, because my ability to interact with locals was very minimal. In fact one time I got a taxi, had the address of the place I was going written down, and somehow we weren't able to figure out what was going on!